Hazy Night Moon from the series, Twelve Aspects of the Moon

The three hanging scrolls displayed here are part of a set of twelve, all of which illustrate episodes from folktales, plays, and literature that showcase the moon. The same historical and fictional subjects from China and Japan also appear in Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s famous series of prints One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885–91).

Hazy Night Moon features the 12th-century historical figure Kumasaka no Chōhan, a priest who was also the leader of a band of robbers. He was killed while attacking a group of warriors. He is shown here as an actor wearing a Nō mask and elaborate robes because after his death, he became the subject of a Nō drama in which his ghost asks a traveler to pray for him so that he may escape his torment in the afterlife.